


My Name is Annabeth Chase

by liketolaugh



Series: Corvid Creations [8]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, Identity Reveal, Magic Revealed, Speeches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22686886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liketolaugh/pseuds/liketolaugh
Summary: In the aftermath of the battle against Kronos, Tony Stark leads a press conference that will shatter the world's understanding of itself as badly as the Battle of New York did several years before.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Series: Corvid Creations [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1302038
Comments: 8
Kudos: 192





	My Name is Annabeth Chase

By the time the announcement is made, the rumors have been around for months - for years, really, if you count the earliest speculations following Thor’s arrival.

Percy is watching then, on the edge of the couch with Riptide spinning between his fingers. His eyebrows were furrowed, eyes focused intently, and Sally hummed behind him, laying a hand on his arm.

“She’ll do fine, Percy,” she reassured him. “You practiced this speech with her.”

“The entire camp practiced this speech with her,” he replied, but her words had the desired effect; he relaxed.

As the opening statements finished, Tony made his way onto the stage, smirking and swaggering without a glance to the crowd. When he reached the podium, he turned, waved at the cameras, and then slammed his hands onto the edges with a loud bam.

“You know, I really thought we were done with these,” Tony said flippantly to the crowd. “Government sponsored, government run program, I thought PR would be someone else’s problem now. Come on, hands up, how many of you are tired of seeing this handsome face?” A ripple of laughter and a few raised hands. “Okay, rude.”

Someone cleared their throat. Tony’s smile faltered.

“Okay, Pepper’s reminding me to stop talking and get to the point, thanks, Pep, kiss kiss.” Tony clapped his hands once, kept them clasped, and let his smile fade.

In response, the crowd quieted, hushing for a brief moment. Subconsciously, Percy leaned forward, focusing on the television. Sally held her breath.

“The world’s changing, everyone. In 2011, a Norse god landed in our desolate backyard, and a year later returned to fight against his brother, another Norse god. And so we learned that the Norse myths were real. But I’m going to let you all in on a millenia-old secret, okay?” He leaned forward, and took his sunglasses off, and smiled. You could have heard a pin drop. “Norse mythology isn’t the only mythos walking the Earth.”

The room exploded.

Despite expecting the response, Percy jumped, and it was a moment before he was able to begin making out the questions filtering through their cheap speaker system.

“How did you learn this, Mr. Stark?”

“Mr. Stark, are you implying that not only Norse, but all myths are real?”

“Mr. Stark, does this have anything to do with the August Knockout?”

“Which myths are you referring to, Mr. Stark?”

“Mr. Stark, why is this only being revealed now?”

Tony waited out the clamor, still smiling, and swiftly tucked his sunglasses into his jacket. Eventually, when the noise started to die down, he straightened up and lifted his hands for silence, which arrived only reluctantly.

“Greek myths,” Tony said clearly, his voice carrying with ease. “The Twelve Labors of Hercules. The Iliad and the Odyssey. Princess Andromeda, Perseus, and Medusa. All of these stories, and every story like them, are real - and the gods and monsters that appear in them are still alive today!”

He had to raise his voice toward the end as the reporters burst into motion again, calling out and chattering.

At home, Percy exhaled, nose crinkling anxiously. He glanced at Sally, whose eyes were fixed on the screen, her grip like iron on his arm, and scooted closer so their sides pressed together before looking back at the screen. Sally relaxed slightly, and Percy copied her.

“They are still alive!” Tony continued at last, raising his voice to be heard. “And they are still affecting the world around them!” He crossed his arms and waited, and when he was satisfied with the quiet, he went on, “I’m going to hand this conference over to Annabeth Chase-” Percy’s heart skipped a beat, and Sally squeezed his arm. “-who has been selected to represent the Greek world.”

Tony stepped aside with a sweeping motion of one arm, and a moment later, Annabeth appeared on the podium, Yankees cap in her hand and her steel-grey eyes fixed on one of the cameras. The television’s view quickly switched to that camera, so she appeared to be looking the viewer right in the eye.

Just as it had the day he met her, Annabeth’s gaze made Percy feel as if she could see his every weakness. Not a trace of uncertainty revealed itself on her face.

Annabeth was amazing.

Annabeth did not wait for the cries of alarm to die down; she launched straight into the speech that every camper at Camp Half-Blood had by now heard half a dozen times, now delivered with more confidence than ever before.

“My name is Annabeth Chase,” she announced, setting her cap on the podium. “I am sixteen years old. My father, Frederick Chase, is a history professor at West Point University. Until I was seven I did not know who my mother was.”

She paused. No questions intruded into the silence.

“While I was growing up, I would sometimes look around and see monsters. In preschool, a Cyclops tried to pick me up from school. In second grade, a hellhound sniffed around my front yard for two hours. Most strangely of all, some nights I would be swarmed by dozens of spiders, which would bite me and terrorize me for hours. By morning the bite marks would fade, and no one believed me.”

Pause, and she took a breath.

“Between all of these things, and my family’s denial of them, I made a drastic choice. I ran away from home at the age of seven.”

Pause.

“A week later, I discovered that my mother was Athena, the goddess of wisdom.”

Another pause, and this time Annabeth waited. After a few moments, murmurs began to rise, and then gradually accelerated into a crescendo.

Annabeth didn’t even blink. She’d been practicing that, too. Instead, her eyes scanned the crowd, head turning just slightly to include the entire room. She held herself well, tall and confident - like a goddess did.

“I am half mortal and half god,” she continued, when she judged the mood of the room to be right. “A demigod, or, informally, a half-blood. And there are dozens of children like me - almost a dozen adults. Most of them have stories like mine. Some of them are found by satyrs.” A heartbeat. “All of them come to Camp Half-Blood, where we learn to battle monsters, work together, and run quests for the gods. I’ve been there for nine years, longer than almost any demigod currently alive.”

One last pause, and Annabeth settled her arms on the podium in front of her, seemingly unfazed.

“Ask your questions.”

Percy let out the breath he’d been holding, and then grinned, reaching up to rub away the tears on his cheeks and in his eyes.

“That was perfect,” Sally breathed beside him, and Percy bobbed his head.

“Yeah,” he said hoarsely, watching Annabeth demand order from the reporters before she would answer questions.

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't a new work, unfortunately. I wrote it as part of a larger AU a couple years ago and may or may not continue to fill out the universe. (Notable: Tony and Clint are demigods, Natasha is clearsighted, and Peggy is a daughter of Zeus old enough to predate the original oath.)
> 
> There's a very long series of events leading up to this scene, but it stands on its own just as well.


End file.
